


Atmosphere

by DangerTaylor



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Banter, Enemies to Lovers, Ep 9 fix it fic, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Force Bond, Lightsabers as Foreplay, Loss of Virginity, Mention of abuse, Mutual Pining, Oral Sex, Pink Ladies Love Exchange, Porn With Plot, Pregnancy/Children, Shameless Smut, Vaginal Fingering, Wall Sex, virgins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-01-04 04:00:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21191207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DangerTaylor/pseuds/DangerTaylor
Summary: Six months after the Battle of Crait and Rey is just as conflicted about her feelings for Kylo Ren as she was when fleeing the salt-covered planet. The bond continues to connect them, but Rey fights with herself to resolve that she may not hate the new Supreme Leader...that perhaps she feels something else entirely for him.After divulging his location during a distracting bond, Rey betrays her friends and goes to him, thinking that if she could just get Kylo Ren out of her system and confront him one more time, that she could move on with her life.





	1. Maybe In A Different World

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Littlemistake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Littlemistake/gifts).

> This is for the lovely Littlemistake. She is so kind and talented that I am so pleased to be able to gift this to her in the Pink Ladies Love Exchange.
> 
> Thank you as always to MyJediLife for the amazing work she does for this community!

**Maybe In A Different World**

Rey hated this. 

She hated lying to her friends, to the woman who was quickly becoming a mentor, and to her co-pilot, Chewie. She hated that it had come to this, but something had to be done—she needed closure. 

She hated sending Finn away on the _ Falcon _ and giving bogus coordinates to Poe. She hated that she had to sneak away in a non-descriptive shuttle and lie to Rose about where she was going. 

Rey also hated that it was all because of _ him._

The moment where her confliction turned to loathing could not be pinpointed. 

It may have been when he commanded the First Order to fire upon the _ Falcon_, knowing full well that she was aboard. Or when he named himself the successor to Snoke, and his helm became a haphazardly pieced together crown. It did make it easier for her that Kylo continued to hide his face away from the galaxy, but it was those times that the bond opened as he was stepping out of the fresher, or when he was stripping himself after a battle brutally won, that caused her heart to clench and her mind to blur.

It was those times where Rey hated him the most—because when he looked at her with those eyes, with his hair in just the right state of disarray, and a declaration of _ something _ hanging on his pouting lips, Rey had to admit to herself that she didn’t hate him at all. 

Rey watched from afar, observing through the bond as Kylo start to grow, finally having no Master but himself, no one to beat Ben Solo and his Light into submission. What she did not witness was how he was systematically executing the officers who still had unwavering loyalty to Snoke, resolved that it was the only way to snuff out the past to ensure his vision for the galaxy’s future.

At night when she couldn’t sleep, or when she was training in the compound, Rey drew from her anger, from the hurt, from the darkness, and it gave her strength. 

Kylo knew her mind, knew her past and fears, and he used them against her. He drew on her newly learned compassion, and Kylo being an accomplished Force user, Rey questioned if her visions were her own. On Ahch-To she was so confident that Kylo would turn, but just as she currently could not trust her heart, it was hard for her to put trust within the Force, hating the feeling that she had been manipulated. 

She went to him, thinking that he cared for her, and ended up right in the clutches of Snoke. Kylo used her as a distraction to kill his Master and take that power as his own. Power—she mused. Kylo wanted her power, and he was right about one thing—together they would be unstoppable, but Rey did not want the path of the Sith, yet as each night her body burned with need, she knew that she couldn’t be Jedi. 

Maybe now Rey hated herself for being so attention-starved that she thought someone like Kylo Ren would choose her, want her for something other than her midi-chlorian count. Even in the ongoing bond, he did not mention his offer, did not clarify his intent, asking nothing else of her. 

Surely if she meant anything to Kylo Ren, the Supreme Leader of the First Order, ruler of the majority of the galaxy, with all the power at the tips of his fingers—surely he would come for her. 

When she felt his lust through the bond, Rey would stand in her fresher, looking at her nude body in the faded mirror, doubting that he was thinking of her boyish figure, covered in lean muscle rather than flattering curves. She cupped her small tits, barely enough to fit in her hands, and knew they would be dwarfed in his massive palms. This made her wonder who was warming the Supreme Leader’s bed, who would be getting the next offer to join him.

But each time she saw him, in the bond or on the holo, he was alone, giving orders to commission a hospital, cutting down the slave traders, exiting his Silencer after policing the spice lanes—but always alone. This led her to believe that he didn’t need her, Kylo found his own Light, used his own power, invoking his own change, and Rey cried into her standard-issue pillow because she should have taken his hand. 

Six standard months have passed since Crait, and try as she might, Rey was unable to shut the bond, her heart was breaking with each connection. She watched Kylo struggle with the desire to ask her what was wrong, but he never did, and this cemented the fact she already knew to be true, that Kylo Ren did not care for her.

They still could not control it, the bond that is, but she at least attempted to control herself, even though it felt like the other half of her soul was slowly clicking into place. She refused to talk to him, especially when his screaming tantrums turned into pleading monologues. A few times he dared to reach for her, causing Rey to trip over hoses and wires in the old Rebel base on Antar, or bump into Snap in the mess hall, much to the pilot’s delight as he caught her around the waist and looked down at her, making his cheeks seem even more round. 

Sometimes she would wake up to Kylo sleeping next to her, and those were perhaps the only bonds that she gave her attention to. Most of those nights, he was so peaceful looking that she could almost picture him in a different life, the life they were promised, but then there were other nights of restlessness, of furrowed brows and scared mumbles. 

These were the times that she took pity on Kylo Ren, and she would ghost her fingers along his temples, wrap his mind in her warmth, and when she too was feeling disconnected and scared, she would insert images from what she saw when they touched hands on Ahch-To. 

The worst part of the bond was being able to feel each other’s emotions, even when they were not fully connected. The anger and adrenaline she was used to, but it was the utter loneliness and pining that made her skip meals and hide in one of the rarely used hangars. 

She would squeeze herself into a tight place and cry, thinking about her state of despair. Back on Jakku—fitting into small compartments or the spaces between walls—that compression on her body—it was how she thought a hug might feel. Since then, she experienced real embraces, Poe smelled like fuel and spice, Finn like gunpowder and fresh moss, Rose like durasteel shavings and wind before a rain, Chewie like earth and musk, and Leia like lilies of the valley. Still, as she tucked herself between a wall and a crate of spare parts, Rey only yearned to know his scent, to know what his arms would feel like wrapped around her. 

_ Safe…wanted... _

Came across the bond, and she sucked in a surprised breath, before closing her eyes tight and trying to think of anything but Kylo Ren. 

He slept next to her that night within the bond, but it was now Kylo who took away her worry, took away the hurt of abandonment, filled her dreams with what he was shown when they touched hands back on Ahch-To.

As the months grew on, they started _ ‘talking to themselves’ _ more. The bond would open, and Kylo would read aloud from his holopad, or Rey would curse under her breath when trying to fix an X-Wing, only to have Kylo’s deep voice remind her to flush a system or check for the bolt under the manifold. 

A few days after a brutal loss against the First Order, and the same period giving the Supreme Leader the silent treatment, Rey was working in the hangar and getting nowhere with the hyperdrive of the _ Falcon _ when she threw her tools down, “Well?” She said with frustration.

Kylo looked up from the stack of papers that seemed to only grow by the day, “Well what, sweetheart?”

Rey, wrench still in hand, placed her fist on her hip and finally looked back at him, “First, don’t call me that, and second, how do I fix this piece of junk?”

He chuckled for only a brief second before covering it with a cough, “Don’t let Uncle Chewie hear you call it that.”

A part of her heart thawed when he was like this, but even bringing up the Wookiee was like a bucket of cold water to the place deep in her belly that warmed at his smile, the truth of their situations a reminder of how different Rey and Kylo truly were. “He’s still out with the recovery crew,” she bit her lip to prevent the tears, “So I’m free to curse this neglected ship as much as I please.”

There was a long silence between them, neither one wanting to bring up the fact that they were at opposite sides of the war, a source of much of their disagreements. So Kylo cleared his throat, “My dad would use this old rusted spanner to get that bolt off. Try looking for an orange toolbox around there somewhere.”

Rummaging around the engine room, Rey finally found the box and grunted as she shifted it across the steel floor, the top opened with a sickening sound of hinges frozen from disuse. The tool was where Kylo said it would be, and with it, she was able to make easy work of the bolt. 

Looking over her shoulder, she saw the satisfied smirk on his face, “I’m not going to say thank you, if that is what you are waiting for.”

This only made him tuck his lips together to suppress the large smile that threatened to break free, “Then I won’t say, you’re welcome.”

The push and pull were constant. The Resistance would get intel on movements of the First Order, but with each mission, fewer pilots came back than what went out. During these times, Rey would be sent into a rage, often ruining crates of goods or scarring durasteel walls with her newly repaired saber. 

There was once...or maybe twice, when she even tried to cut Kylo through, but alas, she could still not harm him through the bond, not physically at least. 

“Why do you continue to fight us?” She screamed at him.

“I would ask the same of you, your friends, and my mother,” he answered coolly. 

She groaned in frustration, “If you would just surrender, turn yourself and Hux in, answer for your crimes…”

“My crimes?” Kylo raised his voice, standing from the chair he had been lounging in. 

“Hosnian Prime, Starkiller, the fleet!” Her voice rising with each mentioned indiscretion.

Kylo gritted his teeth at her, “You witnessed the execution of one of the monsters responsible for those acts, the other is kept on a very tight leash.”

“So let me guess, you think you are innocent in all this?”

“Your friend, FN 2187…”

“Finn…” she seethed. 

“Do you blame him for any actions he carried out for the First Order?”

Rey looked as if she had been slapped, “Of course not. Snoke and the trooper program brainwashed him.”

He was so close that she had to crane her neck, and Rey wished that when she took in a deep breath that she could smell anything but the damp recycled air of her quarters. “And what do you think was done to me?” His eyes were dark, and the energy that poured out around him was darker. “My family may have thought that I was destined to turn to the Darkside, that I would follow the tragic path of my grandfather, but you know better—you know I still had a choice.” Kylo loomed over her, his nose almost grazed against hers as he whispered, “You saw that...you see me.”

Her chest heaved, her breast band felt too tight, her skin burned. Without feeling in control over herself, Rey reached up, laying her hand against Kylo’s scarred cheek, and pushed with the Force. 

The memories of Snoke’s torture were fresh and raced across the bond with such an intensity that it makes her stagger, and a broken sob was instantly pulled from her lips. Kylo reached out on instinct, gripping her upper arm, feeling the scarred skin under his thumb and reigned in the pain, frantic to never let her know the extent of Snoke’s evil. 

A new set of images flooded her mind as he brushed his thumb over the mask she earned on the _ Supremacy _. Rey was not a stranger to intimate fantasies, nor those featuring her bond mate, but these thoughts were not her own, and even as tears continued to spill down her face, Rey’s expression hardened and she moved her hand away from his face, only to bring it back, her palm connecting with an echoing slap. 

“You stay out of my head,” she demands, most hypocritically, before storming away from him, calling her saber to her hand as she went. 

Rey laid waste to many trees that night, unsure if she was wishing it was Kylo she was cutting down, but each time all she could see was the scarred face of Snoke. Seeing into Kylo’s mind made everything so much more confusing. He may have been well into adulthood when Luke made his fatal mistake and Snoke was finally able to lure Ben Solo towards the darkness. But Rey also knew that just as the voices of her parents haunted her with the promise of someone coming back for her, Ben lived with whispers of acceptance and freedom from his conflicted pain. 

Kylo Ren was created by the mistakes of Luke Skywalker and the manipulation of Snoke. The Light and the Dark betrayed Ben, so where did this leave him now? Did this make him any more or less guilty of the war crimes the Resistance was blasting over the holo? 

She remembered the backhanded hits of Plutt’s bulbous fingers and the withholding of food when she was unable to bring in enough scrap. This systematic abuse, and the ever-looming threat of starvation, caused Rey to lie, cheat, steal, from others just as hungry, so that she could survive—so that her family would have someone to come back for. 

But even the pain of Snoke violating her mind with the Force couldn’t compare to the memory of the first time the dark Lord used lightning on Ben, and all because he lost an unfair fight of five against one. 

Plutt wanted to make Rey believe that she could earn her worth, one-quarter portion at a time, while Snoke made Ben feel worthless, made him so starved for just the smallest amount of acceptance that he was willing to kill for a half-hearted smile from his Master that was always backed with malice. 

Rey screamed out into the dense forest, and she lifted her saber over her head, throwing it like an ax into a thick tree, the hissing blade cutting through the wood as she imagined it was the bulging chest of her abuser, or the concave face of Ben’s. 


	2. If We Can’t Have Each Other

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So much love for MyJediLife for being an amazing Beta.

**If We Can’t Have Each Other**

Rey cursed the bond. 

It always opened at the most inopportune times. She was just out of the fresher and preparing for bed, clad in a pair of tan panties and a sleeveless undershirt as she ran a rough towel through her hair. 

Kylo was standing, unmasked, and appeared to be addressing a room of First Order officers. At the sight of her, he staggered, both physically and verbally, leaning against the table in front of him for support. 

“I’m fine,” his thick voice rang through the bond, and he tore his gaze from Rey and back across to the men and women sitting before him. “Make the arrangements on Skako for a week from today.” His eyes flicked back to Rey as she made no move to cover herself, “You are all dismissed.”

Through some sense of bravery, or perhaps stubbornness, Rey stood proudly in her underclothes, knowing that the peaks of her breasts were clearly showing through the thin material of her top. 

“Like what you see?” She cocked her hip and narrowed her eyes at him.

Color came to Kylo’s cheeks, and it was just then that Rey noticed the darker shadow of hair on his jaw and chin as he looked away, “Don’t you have something you can put on?”

Rey rolled her eyes. “This is how I sleep. I’m sorry if seeing me like this makes you uncomfortable,” she said, her tone laced with sarcasm. She felt embarrassment across the bond, and this caused her to pull the blanket off her bed. He must be embarrassed for her, because who would find her attractive?

Kylo sat back in his seat and shifted to cross his legs, placing his right ankle on left knee, in an attempt to hide the uncomfortable situation Rey’s state of undress caused him. All those nights he slept next to her in the bond—with no idea that only one layer of thin cotton separated him from where he wanted to bury his hands, face, tongue—cock.

His thoughts were not helping, and he was flooded with embarrassment, knowing that Rey would ridicule him, despise him even more if she knew his true feelings. Many times he felt her loathing across the bond, felt her hate, her anger, and he just knew that he was sending her further towards the darkness. 

He tried to be the Light, tried to show her that she did not need to fight him, did not need to hate him, and that he could find balance with just knowing she existed on the other side of the galaxy—on the other side of their bond. 

Slowly realizing that his vision with Rey would never come to pass, Kylo poured his energy into creating a galaxy that his bond mate could thrive in. After the war was over, after his mother and the Resistance accepted defeat, or there was no longer anyone left to fight, once he was sure that his legacy of harmony was sound, Kylo would find her. He just hoped that she shared in his pain, in his struggle—in the inability to move on with anyone other than who he was anchored to through the Force.

Finally, her exhausted sigh brought him out of his thoughts, “I’m tired, Kylo. I don’t feel like doing this right now.”

Pressing his lips together, Kylo nodded, “I have some reading to do. Go to bed, Rey. I’ll stay quiet until the bond closes.”

She didn’t like the idea of being vulnerable in front of him. Rey was well aware that the bond often opened during the night, but surely he didn’t know that they regularly slept next to one another. Surely he would have mentioned it. But her exhaustion was overwhelming, as she had taken to training two hours each day in an attempt to keep thoughts of her bond mate at bay. 

So she moved to her barracks cot, settling down with her back to him and her blanket tucked tightly around her body. 

Minutes ticked on, and Rey felt more keyed up as the bond continued to sizzle between them. Rolling over, she watched him as he flipped through what she suspected were memos about which world the First Order would lay waste to next. 

But she also knew this wasn’t true. She knew that troopers were only sent to worlds where the inhabitant’s civil liberties were being infringed upon. She knew that fleets of TIEs were policing trade routes against pirates and thugs. The man that told her to let the past die, who yelled at her to let go before whispering a plea to join him—that man was becoming someone she could believe in, someone she could love. 

The silence stretched between them, and Rey sighed again. “Read me something,” which came out more like a command than a request. 

Kylo lifted his eyes from the holopad and met her gaze, “Sure, sweetheart.” A soft smile lifted his lips when she didn’t fight him on the pet name. 

Poking at a few programs on the device, Kylo finally found what he was looking for and settled a little deeper into his chair before clearing his throat and starting to recite, “I swear, since seeing Your face, the whole world is fraud and fantasy…”

Rey snickered from across the room, “I didn’t think that was the type of operation you were running—if that is what your Generals are sending you.”

“Shush,” he chastised playfully. “It’s poetry, and remember, you are the enemy. I would never use sensitive intel as a bedtime story.”

“So sorry, your Imperial worshipfulness,” she teased back and burrowed further into her stiff pillow. He looked at her with a challenging raised eyebrow, and Rey had to suppress her smile, “Please, go on…”

“Where was I?” He questioned, looking back at the holopad. “Yes, here— I swear, since seeing Your face, the whole world is fraud and fantasy. The garden is bewildered as to what is leaf or blossom. The distracted birds can’t distinguish the birdseed from the snare. A house of love with no limits, a presence more beautiful than venus or the moon, a beauty whose image fills the mirror of the heart.”

His voice was a melody that Rey would never tire of, and his cadence lulled her senses. The words danced with colors and images just behind her heavy lids, bright light within a field of darkness, a feeling of warmth, a feeling she could only describe as—utter completeness.

“Hmm,” she hummed lazily. “Read another.”

“Okay, sweetheart. But just one more.” He could sense that she was starting to drift off as he pulled up another of his favorites by Rumi. Standing, Kylo padded across the room and settled just on the edge of her cot, “Last night you left me and slept your own deep sleep. Tonight you turn and turn.” He shifted her blankets that had slipped off her hip, not allowing himself to think about the expanse of her naked legs, “and I say, ‘You and I will be together till the universe dissolves.”

Kylo reached out and skimmed his thumb along her temple, pushing back whisps of chestnut hair and examining the dusting of freckles along her cheeks and the slight purse of her lips as she puffed with sleep. “You mumble back things you thought of when you were drunk.” He finished the poem that he knew by heart, and he placed a vision in her mind to ease her dreams, to ensure that she only dreamt of him.

Rey woke the next morning, still with the word Skako in her mind. Kylo never spoke about his work, never divulging anything about his movements—his plans. She couldn’t blame him, she was still a threat, always on the wrong side of the war, and after all, Rey walked away from her chance to be part of what Kylo was achieving. 

But there was no time for her to search the holonet for Skako as she got the call that Black Squadron was limping their way in from their latest defeat. Shoving two protein muffins down her throat with a cup of lukewarm caf, Rey raced to the hangar and zipped up her coveralls just as Poe’s X-wing came buzzing in. 

There wasn’t a panel on the ship that wasn’t charred with laser burns. The hatch came open with a hiss, and Poe was throwing off his helmet and jumping out of the cockpit, “He came out of nowhere!”

“What the hell happened out there?” Rey asked. 

“Ren in that modified TIE came away from the pack, and there was nothing we could do. That thing turns on a dime, but at least his targeting seemed a bit off, was only able to shoot to disable, not kill.” 

Just then, the hatch at the bottom of the craft opened and out rolled BB-8 with a lifeless thud. “BB!” She cried out, and slid to her knees to catch the droid’s half-moon head. 

“Buddy!” Poe called with just as much urgency. 

Rey looked over the burnt circuits on BB’s body and was thankful that his memory sensors were located in his head unit. “I should be able to fix him, but your ship is going to have to wait.”

“Yeah, anything you need, just get my little guy back up and running.”

She used the Force to lift the droid onto a wheeled cart, and moved BB over into her work station in a more quiet corner of the hangar. 

The sound sucked out around her just as she removed the outer panel to get a better look at what was fried within the droid. “You monster!” She seethed, and threw a screwdriver in his direction. 

Even after all their fights, he still flinched when she’s like this. Maybe it was the systematic abuse from Snoke, that his old Master’s anger always came with pain, but Kylo also knew that he would never hurt Rey, no matter how much she grew to hate him. 

“What do I owe your outrage today, sweetheart?”

“You shot my friend!”

“Correction, I shot _ at _ your friend…”

“Not Poe, you nerf herding idiot. I’m talking about him!” She pointed at the droid. 

Kylo still shrugged. He made a point of using his less-lethal lasers, wanting to wound the Resistance’s floundering X-wings, but not kill anyone who Rey may care about. 

“Him!” Rey said again, slamming her hand down on the round ball of BB’s body.

Something happened at that moment that never had before...Kylo could see what Rey was touching, and in his stunned state, all he was able to stutter was, “A droid?”

“He’s not just—” but Rey stopped too, looking between Kylo and BB. “Wait, you can see him?”

Kylo nodded, “The BB unit from the forest…”

“Yes, and his name is BB,” Ray insisted.

“How original,” Kylo said under his breath. “I always knew Dameron was more brain than brawn.”

“Your bad attitude doesn’t excuse the fact that you shot a defenseless droid.”

“Defenseless!” Kylo said incredulously. “Perhaps you forgot that often droids are in fighters, piloted by those who had no qualms firing laser cannons at me!”

Rey remembered seeing the burns on Poe’s X-Wing, each strike not strong enough to breach the hull. Kylo had been holding back, and she was unsure of his reasoning, but she hated the pain that stabbed in her heart from Kylo putting himself in danger by flying missions. “What were you even doing out there?”

“We were escorting medical supplies to Alee and,” he looked a bit sheepish, “I miss flying. I had a lot to—ah—think about, and there’s no better place but open space.”

“Medical supplies…to Alee…” Rey questioned. She knew changes were happening under Kylo’s rule, but this was the first time he’d talked to her about anything concerning First Order happenings.

“There was a civil uprising, and the people took their world back from the Hutt’s. Despite what your precious Resistance is telling you, I do still believe in civil liberties.”

“But why would we…why would Poe…” She was attempting to wrap her head around the purpose of the mission. She had to wonder how many people suffered because of the delay in the delivery of much needed supplies. 

“Because they’ll take any opportunity to assassinate me. Even at the expense of the well-being of others.”

Rey looked down at the charred circuits of BB’s internals. This attack was senseless, and the droid was hurt for no other reason but Poe’s pride. 

Kylo knelt beside her, his pleading stare cutting into her profile. “You know me. What will it take for you to see that I’m not what they say I am?”

She still wouldn’t face him, but he felt her send up a block, not allowing him to sense her feelings. He dropped his head with a sigh, “If you need any parts to fix your friend, you know how to reach me.” He then stood and walked away from her. This was the first time he intentionally attempted to sever the bond.


	3. In The Atmosphere

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks to MyJediLife for being such a supportive bata to our community!!
> 
> I also wanted to give a shout out to Viridiantly for suggesting the poetry for last chapter. 
> 
> Jade, I am so glad that you are enjoying this little gift. Our lovely beta has the rest of the chapters...so if you want to know how this ends, get on her. 😂😂

**In The Atmosphere**

Rey was able to fix BB by that afternoon. Somewhere deep inside, she almost hoped that she would need help and find a reason to reach back out to Kylo. This is the same part of her that wondered what it would feel like to let an apology towards him cross her lips.

Because at this point, there was so much she was sorry for.

The bond remained silent for days, as if the Force was pushing her hand, which is what drove her to sneak from her quarters late at night and into a deserted communication bay. 

It was comical how easy it was to hack the archaic Resistance computer systems. Rey guessed that this is the best they can do with the remnants of wars past. Backdating and encoding the false intel was almost too easy, and with a resolved exhale, she uploaded the data to the system.

The base was in chaos the next morning, and Rey highly suspected it had something to do with her nocturnal activities. Not being privy to information exchanged in the war room, this didn’t stop Rey from reaching out with the Force to brush against Poe’s mind.

They had taken the bait, leaving them only two days to plan for the attack. The Resistance buzzed with anticipation of finally being able to take down the Supreme Leader after so many failed attempts.

It was too bad that the only person Kylo Ren would be confronting was Rey.

Rey worked tirelessly in the hangar to make any last-minute repairs to the X-wings, wanting to appear as if she was preparing them for the mission of a lifetime.

The day of their surprise attack came, and Finn helped Leia up the ramp of the _ Falcon._ It was decided that getting the General away from danger in the fastest ship in the galaxy was their best bet at the survival of the Resistance.

Chewie was about to board the _ Falcon _ when he looked back at Rey, calling out in his native language, “Are you coming, Starfire?”

She bit her lower lip and knew that her large hazel eyes were betraying her, “No, I’ll stay behind and get ready for incoming fighters.”

The Wookiee appraised her for a long moment, tilting his head to the side before lifting his chin and speaking again, “Tell Ben that Waroo misses him.”

Rey’s cheeks went flush, and she only gave the Wookiee a reassuring nod before he raced up the ramp of the freighter. The familiar whine of the _ Falcon’s _ engines made Rey feel a sense of home, but she also knew that her true belonging was halfway across the galaxy.

Unsure of how her personal mission would play out, Rey packed the majority of her worldly goods into a small satchel before penning a note and slipping it underneath her pillow. She knew that it would be found if she didn’t return to the base. She also knew that Leia would know precisely what the three words meant.

_ I’m with him. _

Taking one last look at her quarters, Rey used the now dark and deserted corridors as cover as she made her way to a nondescript transport shuttle on the far side of the tarmac. She had wiped the codes herself the night before, so she knew it would not be traced and that the shuttle wouldn’t be identified as part of the Resistance fleet.

The trip into the Core would take her a few hours, causing her to switch hyperlanes at least twice. Unfortunately, this gave her time to think, which was not helping her nervousness.

She attempted to resolve within herself what this truly was. Rey would confront him, face-to-face, give her instincts over to the bond and the Force, and hopefully by morning get Kylo Ren out of her system and finally be able to move on with her life. 

* * *

Skako was a city world, much like Coruscant, except the entire planet was covered with a sprawling underbelly, akin to the lower levels of the galaxy’s capital.

Rey didn’t need his coordinates. She didn’t need to follow the string of the bond that was now pulled extremely and uncomfortably tight. She only needed to pilot her shuttle towards the most opulent hotel on the planet.

There was no shortage of dodgy ports to dock the shuttle, and plenty of greedy hands not to ask questions about the woman in white who was also cloaked in gray. With the mended saber strapped to her hip and hair pulled back in her traditional three buns, Rey wove her way through the sweltering streets. 

Over the last six months, Rey didn’t have a proper teacher, the training droids that she found in the _ Falcon _ only sharpened her fighting skills, but she refused to hone the mind tricks on any of her friends. 

The hotel was swarming with troopers, but none in the traditional white armor. It was apparent that Kylo had gone to significant measures to make sure that his presence on the planet wasn’t known, to all but one, and she walked up the stairs into the lobby with no push back, blending in perfectly with the troves of locals. 

She attempted to reach out with the Force, read the room, but the sheer number of people made her stagger and lean up against a stone column for support. By taking the moment to rest, she was able to reach out with her mind to a trooper standing by the door, and she rolled her eyes before heading to the turbo lift. 

“Penthouse...of course. Only the best for his Dark Lordship,” Rey muttered to herself. 

The lack of security on the inside of the hotel was concerning, but also with how the Resistance had been approaching missions, barreling in guns blazing, the First Order would see them coming light-years away. Or perhaps Kylo was so arrogant that he thought he was untouchable. 

As the lift moved upwards, Rey clenched her fists, six months since Ahch-To, one hundred and eighty-three days since she felt his skin against hers. But tonight, she hoped to succumb to the bond and show Kylo just how close to him she could get.

When the metallic doors opened, Rey already knew of the two guards by the door, having felt them through the Force, so she adjusted her hood to hide the majority of her face and paced forward. 

“Halt!” One of the guards called out. “By order of the Supreme Leader.”

“Trust me,” she smirked. “He’s going to want to see me.” Rey threw out one hand, pinning the guard to her left to the wall while walking up to the other, “You will let me enter that room and then forget you ever saw me.”

The trooper echoed her words, and she released him as the door to the hotel room hissed open. Turning her attention to the other guard, Rey repeated herself, and only once she was satisfied that the mind manipulation took hold, did she release the guard. “He really is an idiot to post such weak-minded guards at his door.”

Giving the now brainwashed troopers one last look, Rey sauntered into the room, and with a flick of her fingers, the door closed behind her. 

* * *

The room was dark, and she couldn’t feel his signature nearby, so Rey took it upon herself to explore. Without reason, she ran her bare fingertips along almost every surface. The slick wall of the entry, the cool leather of a sofa, the silken sheets on the bed, the glass window that overlooked the city world now all knew her touch. 

Moonlight flooded in as she walked over to a single table that was littered with papers and holopads. What would Kylo think, the star Jedi of the Resistance, in his chambers, seeing all the First Order secrets? 

Flipping through a few of the documents, Rey surmised that Kylo was on this world for some sort of summit, obviously not one that he could publicly broadcast. Peeling open a folder, Rey balled her fist, knowing exactly why the Supreme Leader was meeting with his lackeys on this shithole world. 

What she found was page after page of plans for another superweapon. There were drafts of the Death Stars and then of Star Killer, each outlining the kyber driven mechanisms of genocide and destruction. 

She crumpled the plans labeled ‘Project V’, feeling the sharp edges of the paper cutting into her palm. A noise across the room drew her attention, but Rey stood stone still. 

Kylo entered his hotel room, heaving out a breath, and unclamping his cape before throwing it over a chair. “Now’s not a good time,” he spoke into the darkened room, having sensed Rey’s presence. 

“I’m sure it’s not,” she seethed back. 

Falling into the chair, he tilted his head back until it hit the wall with an exhausted thunk, “Do you think you could just...I don’t know...try to shut it off?”

“I’m sorry,” she said, not meaning the words. “Am I interrupting your meeting of mass murders?”

He rolled his head to the side so he could look at her, just a sliver of white clothing sticking out from under a gray cloak. “What are you talking about?”

Rey answered with action, throwing the balled up page at him as she unclipped her saber and advanced quickly. Kylo hardly had time to react, having to call his saber to his palm with the Force and ignite it mere seconds before she was able to scar the other side of his face. “Rey, what are you…” he started, but had to block another one of her blows as he twisted his body to stand and take on a defensive stance. 

“How could you?” She screamed at him, rotating her saber to wield it with a backhanded grip. 

He caught her wrist in his gloved hand, pulling her into his guard to limit her range of motion. “You’re going to have to be more specific, sweetheart.” Ben couldn’t lie to himself, couldn’t suppress the thrill that lit inside of him to be sparring with her once more. But he wanted to train her, earn her trust, show her all that the Force could offer, but that wasn’t going to happen if she was actually trying to kill him. 

“Do you think I’m a fool?” Her blue blade caught on his cross guard, throwing a purple hue across the room. 

“I know who you are, and doubt anyone could call you a fool—“ he felt the heat of her saber swing just an inch from his throat, “and live to tell the tale.” Kylo’s only saving grace was the fact that they were within the bond and couldn’t actually hurt one another. 

Kylo pushed out of their locked position, and Rey spun away, unclipping her cloak and letting it flutter to the floor in a puddle of gray. She was a vision in white, not Jedi and not a scavenger, but something more, something he wanted to have...to hold. 

She looked older somehow, not in the way his mother had aged with the stress of a fallen son and a failing Republic. But Rey matured, grew into herself, but in their bond, in the dark of night when he soothed her nightmares, Kylo knew that she was still lost and alone, and yearning for more. 

“I thought you were different! I thought you were changing. That maybe you were becoming someone I could—“ but her words were cut off by a pained yell as Kylo’s volatile saber skimmed her left arm, singeing her skin. 

He immediately stopped, looking between his saber and Rey clutching her arm to her chest, still in a ready position. “How…” he questioned, appraising her from head to toe, trying to understand this new aspect of the bond...unless…

“And boy wonder finally gets it,” Rey gloats, raising her saber until the humming tip rested just under his chin. 

“You came here—you’re really here?” His gaze was locked on her, not caring that she could end him with a simple flick of her wrist. 

“Not for this purpose, but after seeing your plans for Project V, I feel like I have no other choice.”

“Project V?” He reacted, letting his eyes dart to the table of papers in disarray and then back. “You think I’m building a superweapon?”

Rey squared her shoulders, “What other use would a Sith have for Death Star schematics?”

He tried to suppress the smirk that pulled at his lips, “A Sith would build it without a second thought, but I am not Sith. I am balance, and I am outlawing any future attempts of building such a weapon.”

“Outlaw…” She furrowed her brow in confusion, as if the word felt foreign on the tongue. This gave her pause, and she lowered her saber until its tip brushed the floor. Her gaze came back up to him, “You, the Dark Lord of the First Order, outlawing superweapons.”

Kylo sighed and extinguished his blade, clipping the hilt back onto his belt. “I am no longer what my Master made me. If you open yourself more, you would know that—you would know me.”

Open—that is precisely what Rey came all this way to do, to open herself to the bond, and to Kylo. 

A hiss sounded behind her, and Rey turned to see a dark figure racing into the room. A thousand thoughts ran through her head, including the possibility that she was followed and led the Resistance straight to Kylo. 

Dipping back down into a defensive stance, she reached back, the palm of her hand coming in contact with Kylo’s warm chest as she bared her teeth and pointed her saber at the intruder.

The dark figure came to a halt, raising their weapon before a melodic voice came from behind a mask, “Master…”

A part of him wanted to watch a fight break out between his bond mate and his second Knight of Ren, but Kylo knew that he wished neither of them harm. So he held out his hand, “Jeda, stand down.”

“Master?” Rey asked about the title while looking back at him, but still kept the dark figure in her peripherals.

“Rey, I’d like to introduce you to Jeda Ren,” he spoke, while lowering Rey’s hand from his chest.

With the introduction, the figure across the room removed her mask, revealing a woman slightly taller than Rey, with an athletic build and skin the color of honey. 

“Ren…“ Rey mused to herself while looking between the two, feeling tears burning in her eyes. “As in your wife?”

Kylo and Jeda both chuckled, “No, sweetheart. She is one of my Knights. Ren is a title more than a surname.” He took a step forward, almost having to hunch himself over Rey as he dipped his head down next to hers.

His breath was warm on her cheek, and his long hair tickled her ears, “When I take a wife, she will be wedding me, not the monster created by a tyrant.”

Rey sucked in a breath at his closeness, the wetness that pooled in her eyes dried as her body reacted in other ways to his words.

Still looming over her, Kylo tipped up his head, addressing his Knight, “As you can see, I am quite well protected at the moment.” He turned his head to look at Rey, her face is already upturned, and their noses almost brush as their gaze locked. “Please assure that my guest and I are not disturbed. “

Jeda dipped her head in acknowledgment, but can clearly see that her Master and the Jedi girl, that she had heard so much about, were beyond distraction.

  
  



	4. Lost Inside The Promise Of You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just porn. ❤️

**Lost Inside The Promise Of You**

Only once the hotel room door hissed closed did Rey deactivate her saber, letting it hang loosely in her hand. Kylo reached across her body, covering her cheek with the warm leather of his gloves as he searched her face with his eyes. “What are you doing here, really?”

She swallowed thickly, wishing that her lips were not so dry as she answered, “I had to know—I had to find out what this thing is, between you and I.”

He inclined his head forward, just so his nose bumped against hers. Rey’s breathing picked up, and Kylo could feel her pulse race just under the pad of his little finger as it rested against her neck. “I’ve always known what this is,” he searched her expression one more time. “I can show you.”

Her chest shuddered as if she forgot how to breathe, and she looked into his eyes, searching for any reassurance that if they go any further that he won’t hurt her, won’t leave her, make her feel like she truly is—and always has been—nothing. 

What she finds in his gaze is nothing short of breathtaking, and before she can give a full nod his lips were brushing up against hers. Rey felt like every missing piece, every lonely night, and every time it felt like she didn’t belong—everything fell into place when Kylo kissed her, and she slowly turned in his hold to make a better purchase on his lips. 

Kylo drew his arms around Rey, pulling her chest flush with his as they deepened the kiss. Her saber clattered to the floor, and she buried her hands in his hair. A growl rumbled in Kylo’s throat as he cupped the back of her thighs and lifted her as if she was weightless, bringing her to rest on the closest surface. 

The table littered with his documents rattled as Kylo clumsily bumped into it, but now that he had her, he never wanted to be without her lips, without her touch...

Rey’s hands were already working at the hook and loop closure of his surcoat, but when he gripped her wrists, she struggled against his hold, “Why are you stopping?”

Using his teeth, Kylo pulled his gloves from his hands so that he could truly touch her, and he then drew his thumb along her lower lip, “I’m not stopping, sweetheart.” She bit the tip of his finger when he dipped it into her mouth, and he rocked forward against her parted thighs before lifting her hand and kissing her palm, “I’m just getting started.”

Kylo made meticulous work of removing the wraps on each of her arms, placing his plush lips along the blazing trail left by his large fingers. 

“You are so beautiful,” he said while stroking his fingers up her bare arms, cupping her face once he moved past her shoulders and pulling her in for another kiss.

Rey worked at the buckles of her belt and thigh strap, letting it fall heavily on the desk behind her. Then her hands were back at his coat, needing to feel his warmth that radiated just under the quilted fabric.

Hungry for her kiss, Kylo broke away just long enough to help Rey roll the coat over his broad shoulders. Once it landed in a heap on the floor, he was back on her, unable to keep his lips off Rey’s skin. He lifted her once more, strode across the room, and fell with her into bed.

Rocking back to sit on his heels, Kylo pulled off her boots, throwing them unceremoniously over his shoulder and then doing the same for her thick wool socks. He cursed his more intricate boots, having to stand while placing one foot on the bed to reach all the buckles.

If this was going to be a common occurrence with Rey, he was greatly considering investing in different footwear.

He also hoped that this momentary pause would not spoil the passionate pace they were keeping, but he swallowed hard as Rey rid herself of her vest and top, leaving her in only a cream-colored breastband and her white trousers that cinched around her calves.

Kylo’s next layer came off, stripping his muscular arms of their guards, leaving him in only a black sleeveless undershirt. As he started to approach the bed again, Rey lifted her foot, pressing it into the middle of his abdomen as she toed at the shirt. “Off,” she commanded. 

With a smirk he complied, stripping his chest bare before he shifted back on top of her, finding her lips with an ease he had never known.

Kylo kissed down the column of her throat, over her collar bones, and across her sternum. He grabbed the breastband between his teeth and pulled at it playfully as Rey reached up and fisted his dark curls. He continued down her abdomen, kissing just below her belly button before hooking his fingers into the waistband of her pants. With silent permission, Rey lifted her hips and allowed him to drag the white material down her tanned legs.

His hands were everywhere, so large and so warm. Rey thought it impossible to feel such a sensation all over her body, all at once. He was back up at her lips again, laying a couple of sloppy kisses along her jaw before his voice was at her ear, “You’re going to have to tell me to stop if you don’t want this.” His words were just above a deep whisper as he ran his fingertips up the inside of her thigh.

Rey moaned at his words, his touch, his heat, and the tone of her reply was laced with need, “If I wanted you to stop, I would already have a saber at your throat.”

“I don’t doubt it, sweetheart,” he smiled into her skin as his fingers now brushed against her covered core. She hissed and rolled up into his hand, needing more contact, friction—something. “Maker,” he cursed in sheer amazement of her. Shifting his weight from between her legs so that he can lie beside her and see exactly what he was doing to her body, not wanting to miss a single blush of her chest or pleasure-filled gasp.

A few more passes of his fingers along her clothed slit had Rey reaching down to remove her underwear. “How is this even real? How is this not a dream?” Kylo said while catching the cotton material around her ankles and letting them join the rest of their discarded items on the floor.

“Isn’t this what the bond wanted...what the Force was pushing us towards? Isn’t this what we both wanted?” Rey looked up at him as she threw her breastband to the side, the look in her eyes pleading with him not to stop.

Kylo took a long moment to memorize every inch of her skin, “I have wanted this—I have wanted you for so long.”

“Then have me,” she said with certainty.

Rey couldn’t tell him that this would be the only time. With that desperation in his eyes and the slight tremble of his lips, he looked as if he had just received the most precious gift. She had only seen this look once before—when he freed himself from the torturous shackles of Snoke and begged her to join him.

He had no idea what he had done in this or the previous life to deserve the beautiful woman squirming with need under the heat of his hands, but he bent down and kissed her. Thinking that he would never tire of this, he threaded his middle finger down her slit, groaning into her mouth at how slick she was for him.

Kylo’s movements were clumsy as he explored her delicate flesh, getting acquainted with all of the parts he’d only seen in books and holovids. When Rey rolled her hips up into his touch again, he took his thick digit and slid it into her opening.

Rey hissed at the stretch. It wasn’t that she was a stranger to self-satisfaction, but even two of her fingers could not compare to how large he felt pushing within her.

“Fuck,” Kylo said, somewhere between a curse and gratitude. “Are you—“ he swallowed, feeling like his tongue was too big for his mouth, as he moved his finger just slightly in and out of her. “Are you a virgin?”

She couldn’t read his tone, couldn’t read his thoughts, but she felt judged, so she hurried away from him, hating the empty feeling that came with the loss of his touch. “Not many swoon-worthy bachelors on Jakku,” she said, while pulling her knees up and hugging them to her chest.

Dropping her eyes to the soft blankets covering the bed, Rey refused to meet his gaze. “And then I met you…”

“And then there was no one else.” Kylo finished her thought.

Rey finally looked at him, wondering if he was in her head, or if he genuinely felt it too. But Kylo’s expression flipped from confused to worried, then to a thoughtfulness that caused him to chew on the inside of his lip. “I don’t know if…I didn’t feel…” he stared down at his long finger, her essence starting to dry on his skin.

“Didn’t feel what?” Rey asked, offended. 

Kylo now reddened, “Isn’t there supposed to be a...a barrier?”

She scoffed, “So now you care about my virtue? Is this about some archaic expectations to show blood-stained sheets to your counsel, your Highness?” Rey couldn’t be sure which of her countless injuries took her hymen, thinking it could have been a fall while scavenging, or when she was beaten half to death for her haul by fellow pickers. 

The blush drained from his face as Kylo realized his mistake. He felt Rey slipping away from him, so Kylo scooted closer to her, running his hand up her bare leg and kissing her angry brow as he spoke, “I could give a kriff about your virtue, sweetheart, as I’m about to ravage it, but I don’t wish to hurt you if I will be your first.”

Hating that she was so easily distracted by his touch, Rey felt like her insides were melting at his words. “Hurt me…” she dumbly questioned, as his nose pressed into her pulse point and his lips followed not far behind. 

Kylo pulled back, looking anywhere but her hazel eyes, “I’ve heard...I’ve read that a woman’s first time can be...uncomfortable.”

Rey studied his face before she reached out, placing her fingers under his chin and lifting until she was able to gaze into his dark and fleeting eyes, “Are you...have you ever?” His broad shoulders shrugged, and Rey smiled at him. “I’m clearly not in a position to judge.”

He heaved a sigh, “I was the son of the eccentric rebel Senator, and it was no secret that I was Force sensitive. My parents started fighting more, and I became more...sullen. Then there was university, where I was still angry, but also odd-looking, all legs and ears. I was expected to be a Jedi, uphold the Jedi ways, and at the academy—affection was unheard of.”

She was thoughtful for a long moment, tracing her fingers along the scar she gave him, feeling its rough texture across his collarbone and down to his firm chest, while considering how starved for affection...human contact Kylo was. “Then, we shall learn together.” Rey kissed his lips, “This moment—tonight, will only be ours.”

Groaning into the kiss, Kylo took her face into his hands, needing to be close to her in every way. “I will always be yours,” he whispered against her lips.

Rey giggled softly, “Well now, Supreme Leader. Where were we?”

With a smirk, Kylo grabbed her leg and pulled her back down on the bed as she squealed, and he settled between her thighs. Rey still had her arms folded over her chest, and he peeled them away. “Never hide yourself from me,” he kissed just over her left breast. “Every part of you is perfect.”

After months of resisting the pull to Kylo, Rey was giving herself over, and couldn’t get enough of burying her hands in his dark hair, always surprised at how soft it was. He continued to kiss down her body, nudging her thighs apart as he shifted his body further down the bed until his lips played just above her mons. “Kylo…” she breathed the name, unsure if she was begging him to keep going, or warning him to stop. 

“Don’t call me by that name. I’m not him, I’ve never been him with you.” He kissed lower still. 

Rey was panting for breath at this point, and gripped her fingers into his hair. “Ben,” the name sounds needy and comes from a primal part of her.

Ben groans into her sex, deep and satisfying, as if those simple three letters exonerated him of all the pain, all the sins and blood that was shed under his previous name. Rey’s fingers still gripped at the back of his head, pulling him forward, and with an open mouth, he licked up her slit, exploring each divot and pucker of her delicate core. 

He sucked at her nub, and when Rey went stiff, Ben pulled away, “You have to tell me if I’m hurting you.”

Sitting up on her elbows, Rey looked down at his wet and rosy lips, “Do that again.” 

Holding her gaze, Ben dipped his head back down, wrapping his lips around her clit and sucking before giving it a quick flick with the tip of his long tongue. She moaned, and her head fell back, breasts heaving as he continued his work at her core. 

He might have felt embarrassed before with how much time he spent on the holoweb researching how to pleasure a woman, just for the off chance that he would have Rey within his reach. So, drawing on his knowledge, Ben slipped his middle finger back into her, curling it and pulling—tapping at the soft skin at the front of her core. 

Rey started to curse through her pleasure, switching between the fifteen languages in which she was fluent. Even though Ben could only understand half of what she was saying, he knew that she would run him through if he stopped. So he pulled his hand away, just long enough to add his ring finger, and she clamped around his digits as he worked her higher and higher towards release. 

Ben wanted to watch her fall apart, so begrudgingly he pulled his mouth from her clit; instead, he used his left thumb to make firm circles and upstrokes on her sensitive bud. “I’m going to need you to come, sweetheart,” he cooed down at her, kissing the inside of her knee where it rested just over his bicep. 

With the knowledge that he would soon be slipping something thicker than his two fingers inside of the beautiful woman the Force bound him to, Ben needed her to be relaxed. Needed her not to remember their first joining with pain, but instead with the absolute devotion and—dare he thinks—love that he held for her. 

Hands fisted into the sheets around her, Rey looked up to meet Ben’s gaze, his dark eyes burning with something she did not recognize—but knew that she needed all the same. Moving her gaze down his body, she watched the cords of muscle across his chest ripple, his bicep bulge, his forearm flex, and his hands glisten as he moved in and over her. 

It was the realization that Kylo Ren—no, Ben Solo—held her pleasure, her happiness in the palm of his hand, that made Rey crest and welcome the warm and euphoric rush of the most intense orgasm she had ever experienced in her life. 

Ben was enthralled by her. 

The way her body seemed to give off more heat or the way her abdomen flexed, showing her strength, as she pulsed with pleasure. Rey’s expression went from pinched, as if struggling with a pain that has no promise of relief, to that of a woman so truly content. Her lips pulled into a blissful smile, and her eyes danced with joy as she looked at the man responsible for such pleasure. 

But it was what he felt inside that made him want to have Rey for the rest of his days. Maybe it was the way that her core clamped down on his fingers, refusing to let him go, the only movement he was allowed was the steady up-tap of his fingers that just extended her bliss. But it was also her Light, the pure brilliance of her Force signature that pulsed out around her, and Ben took it into himself, bathed in it, worshiped it, silently pledged at this moment that he would die for it. 

Ben knew that there would never be anyone else but her. 

Rey twitched with another aftershock as Ben continued to move within her. “You’re going to need to stop doing that or else I’m going to keep coming…” She stuttered with fragmented breaths, moaning lowly when his two fingers slowly and deeply curled within her. 

“That makes me not want to stop at all, sweetheart,” he cooed, with just a hit of a chuckle as he gave her a solid lick.

Her tone got serious, “Do you want me to be so spent that you don’t get to fuck me…” His fingers stopped at once, and thank the stars he pulled them out slowly as to not hurt her already tender flesh. “That’s what I thought,” Rey said with snark as she fell back on the mattress, feeling absolutely boneless. 

Ben wanted to give her a moment, wanted her to be able to go all night long, even if he doubted he would be able to last more than a few minutes the first time, at least. His virginity used to embarrass him, all his Knights bragging about their conquests after missions, but Ben—no, Kylo—had been taught to hate his body, to see it just as a tool of distraction and not something to bring closeness and belonging. 

But now, as he ran his fingertips over Rey’s bare stomach and breasts, he was glad for his abstinence, thankful that he was able to share this moment with her, and only her, doubting that he would ever crave another the way he does her. 

With her breathing evening out, Rey reached over and guided his face to hers, kissing her taste from his swollen lips and humming as she licked at the seam. Rolling to her side, she rocked up onto her knees, “Scoot up some.”

He moved towards the head of the bed, letting her hands that rested on his chest and hip guide him until his back was pressed against the pillows and headboard. She pulled at the waistband of his pants, and together they rid him of the rest of his clothing. 

Rey broke their kiss to look down at his cock, which she heard slap heavily against his hip when his briefs were removed. She had never seen one in person, a penis that is, just one on the holoweb, and she was both scared and curious about Ben’s. 

It was huge...she doubted she could close her fingers around it, and it was darker than the rest of his skin, almost reddish, and looked painfully hard. 

“Is something wrong with it?” Ben asked, his voice just slightly too high with worry. 

“I’m not sure…” Rey answered honestly while straddling one of his muscular thighs. “I’ve never...you know...been this close to one before.” She flicked her gaze up to meet Ben’s, and his chest was heaving now, his brows pinched. “Can I—can I touch you?”

He puffed out a breath, “Gods, yes!”

Reaching out with caution, as if she was going after the galaxy’s last Holocron, Rey’s fingers brushed against the underside of his cock, causing Ben to suck in a hissing breath. Rey immediately pulled her hand back, “Did I hurt you?”

Ben grabs her wrist, “No...no, you didn’t. It’s just that I’ve never been touched by someone else, and now that person is you.”

Rey blinked slowly at him, “Will you show me?”

He didn’t realize that he was holding his breath, but Ben nodded and moved her hand back into his lap, sliding his fingers over the back of her hand until he was wrapping her fingers, and his, around his ramrod cock. 

Letting him guide her hand, Rey studied how his skin moved, how the head became almost a dark purple, and then ran the pad of her thumb over the pearl of fluid that leaked from him on their next upstroke. “How is it so soft, yet so hard at the same time?”

Ben groaned as she gave him a tight squeeze, “I’m not sure, sweetheart, but if you keep doing that, I’m going to come.”

She knew that he was kind to get her off first, and now seeing his size, she also was thankful to be more pliable. But the first time she watches Ben Solo fall apart, he will be buried deep within her, and she will join him in bliss. 

So she stilled her hand and kissed him, “I want you.”

“You have me,” he nudged his nose against hers. “Completely.”

Moving above him, Rey now fully straddles his hips. “Do you have anything?” She asks while dragging her still wet core along his shaft. 

Ben nods, “Snoke required that I get an implant, saying that children were a distraction that the First Order could not afford.”

Rey tried to keep the sorrow out of her eyes, reaching down to rub her thumb along the small scar on his right forearm. She had a matching one, getting an implant shortly after the Resistance found their new base, but that was her choice, and her heart hurt at just how much of Ben’s free will had been taken from him. 

She kissed his arm, thanking him...accepting him, and then she kissed his lips as he drew her closer until there was no room between their chests. Their heat ignited again, and Rey rolled her hips against him, both of them fueling their passion with lips, tongue, and teeth. 

Releasing her hold on his hair, Rey reached between them, wrapping her hand around his cock again, and rocked up on her knees to align him with her opening. Ben gripped her hips, “Are you sure about this?” His expression did nothing to hide his feelings, begging her not to stop, but also willing to fully accept her choice if she did. 

Rey gave him a soft smile, leaning back in to kiss him as she sank down, feeling the head of him stretch her in a painful but delicious way. Her breath was lost in her chest, and as she took more of him in, she was sure that Ben was not breathing either. 

It took a long moment for her to settle in his lap, and her chest heaved as Ben blew out an unsteady breath, his fingers gripping her hips just as tight as her core was clamped around his cock. 

She felt so full, bordering on too full, and tried to find some relief by rising off him, but Ben held her still, “Don’t move—I beg you. I need a moment. You’re so tight...so hot. I don’t want to...”

A kiss stopped his blabbering, and Rey stayed put, focusing on her inner muscles, telling herself to relax, attempting to focus on their connection. So she gave herself over the bond, opening her body, mind, and soul to Ben Solo. 

They both groaned at the feeling that the Force bathed them in. 

All of the lonely nights that they both suffered, waiting for something—someone who they started to believe would never come along. All of the abuse, the unfortunate circumstances of their first meeting, all the wasted time, wasted energy hating each other, only to come down to this. 

Rey wanted to cry at the realization that this feeling was what she had been fighting, what her friends were keeping her from, what her heart had been denying. The bond pulled tight, taking a foothold and tying off the final stitch between their hearts. The Light and Dark within both of them swirled, churned—became one. 

It all became so clear—all of the love and anger, lust and shame. Loss and belonging—it was all for her, just as it was all for him. 

Their lips came together without either of them having to think, and Ben’s hands slid up her sides, gripping around her rib cage as his thumbs pressed just under her breasts. As if on instinct, like they’d come together like this their entire lives, Rey started to move over him, with small rolls of her hips. 

The fit was still snug, and Rey swore she could feel every ridge, every vein—every curve of him inside of her. Ben pulled her up, and his cock head caught on the same area that had caused her to peak before. “Oh, fuck,” she gasped, and Ben froze. She opened her eyes to see his concerned face, and she smiled, “That was good...Do it again.”

He matched her grin and thrust into her again, watching her eyes roll back, and her face go slack with pleasure. “You feel so amazing,” he spoke against the flushed skin of her chest. 

“Ben,” she sighed, while keeping a tight grip on the hair at the back of his head, continuing to feel just the tip of him sliding against the spot that made her toes curl. His lips were wet on her collarbone and up her neck, his breath hot against her cheek, and Rey felt herself building, but needed more. 

With a slight yank of his hair, Ben’s lips were on hers. Two more shallow thrusts, and then she slammed herself down onto his lap, feeling the jolt of pleasure-pain rip up her spine. 

“Shit—fuck—shit…” Ben cursed, gripping her hips, lifting her, and then pulling her back down on his cock two more times. 

Rey leaned back, supporting her weight with her hands braced on his thighs as Ben continued to tease her before fucking up into her with quick, hard thrusts. “You look so beautiful riding my cock,” he panted as he felt the wetness from her cunt drip down between his legs. 

Ben knew he wouldn’t last long at this pace, but he needed Rey to find her bliss, so he changed the angle of her hips just slightly and commanded, “Touch yourself, sweetheart. I want to feel you come like this.”

That mouth...those words...Rey thought they only existed in her dreams, and she was helpless but to snake her hand down between them and strum roughly at her clit. 

He let her take control of his body, using him for her pleasure, and this is exactly where he would spend the rest of his day if she allowed it. Ben loved the sting at his shoulder as her nails dug into his skin. Rey curled in on him, her movements becoming frantic as she kept his cock seated deep inside her, riding him, chasing her release. 

“Ben,” she pleaded, her fingertips feeling numb from being soaked in slick, she was almost too wet, not getting the friction against her clit that she needed. But her bond mate was right there, reading her, knowing her, and he wrapped the fingers of his right hand around the back of her neck, placing his thumb under her chin, lifting Rey’s face to meet his. 

“Look at me,” he said roughly, his left hand on her hip continuing to pull her deeper onto his cock. He spoke once her watery hazel eyes met his, “Rey, I need you to let go.” Every muscle in his body was strained. The string holding the bond together was pulled so tight that Ben wondered how they had both hung on for this long. 

“Let go,” he urgently whispered, and Rey’s whole body constricted. 

Ben never felt anything so consuming, her core gripping, pulsing, drawing him in further, and just as her Light bloomed, he tipped over the edge with his hand at her throat, his forehead pressed to hers, and his seed spilling deep against her womb. 

The room was quiet except for the sound of their heavy breaths, as the atmosphere buzzed around them. Ben’s palms were warm against her sides as his thick fingers dimpled into the skin of her back with his secure hold on her. Rey moved damp and curly hair from his forehead as she lazily placed a kiss to his cheek, brows, chin, nose…

Scooting himself down, Ben removed his right hand from her skin long enough to use the Force to pull the blanket at the base of the bed up over their bodies. They both whimpered as his softening cock slid from within her, but neither one broke from their tight embrace.

Tracing random shapes on his bare chest, Rey felt tears prickle in her eyes, and she whispered out into the space between them, “Ben… “

He just held her tighter, seeing her mind, knowing her words, denying her feelings for now, as he kissed the crown of her head and begged, “Rey, please don’t. For tonight, it’s just us. Just sleep.”

Kissing the place over his heart, she gave Ben want he needed, and fell asleep in the arms of a man who she now knew was undoubtedly her soulmate.

  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you as always to the amazing and lovely MyJediLife. The Pink Ladies are so very lucky to have her.


	5. Forever Was the Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here we are...last chapter. This exchange has been so much fun and I don’t know where I would be without the Pink Ladies. Their love and support in this fandom is everything. 
> 
> To Jade, I hope you enjoy this HEA. 😘
> 
> Thank you to MyJediLife for being the most amazing beta ever. Also thank you to here4thereylo for helping me through this last chapter. 
> 
> I added one more tag for this chapter. Please check before reading.

**Forever Was the Time **

They woke just as the sun was breaching the horizon. Rey shifted away from him, and begrudgingly Ben let her go, watching her move to the fresher.

When she came back out he was sitting on the edge of the bed, having pulled on a pair of black training pants. “You’re going back to them,” he said more as a fact than a question.

Rey felt her eyes sting again, but she refused to let the tears fall. “You knew what this was. You knew this wasn’t forever—wasn’t for right now. You knew I never wanted any part of this,” she gestured over to the table stacked with First Order papers.

As she spoke, Rey pulled on her underwear and pants. Unable to find her breastband, she shrugged on her wrap top, knowing her chest was small enough that it didn’t really make a difference.

Ben hung his head, feeling Rey’s heart breaking through the bond, just as his was. “Even after…” he chanced to look in her direction, “even knowing what _ this _ is.”

She knew exactly what he was inferring. He was talking about their bond, the fusing of their signatures to the point that another Force sensitive being wouldn’t be able to feel where one of them ended and the other began.

Walking up to Ben, Rey threaded her fingers through his hair, tipping his face up towards her, “I know exactly what this is,” and she flooded his mind with the future, a future that she could have with him—that she wanted with him.

But Ben knew it wasn’t for now. So he outstretched his hand, using the Force to gather her arm wraps before he painstakingly encircled her soft and freckled skin in the rough fabric.

He kissed each of her wrists when he tucked the tail of the band beneath the wrappings. Then his arms slid around her waist, pulling her between his legs and burying his face in the warm skin just below her sternum as her shirt hung open. His lips wanted to memorize the taste of her, the feel of her, her warmth, her Light.

When he lifted his face to gaze at her, Ben’s expression was akin to that from the throne room, begging her to stay, but knowing that she was choosing to go. “One last time?”

Rey smiled softly as she agreed, “One more time.” She rolled her shirt from her shoulders as Ben slid her pants off, kissing down her abdomen while cupping her bare thighs and rear. His lips came to hers in a desperate kiss as he lifted Rey from the ground, pulling her legs around his waist.

She was lost in their embrace, but hissed when her body came to rest between cold transparisteel and his warm chest. Breaking the kiss long enough to look over her shoulder, Rey saw the Skako sun coming up over the expansive cityscape.

Ben’s face was bathed in the orange morning light as he shifted his pants down, waiting for Rey’s gaze to come back to his, and he entered her with one firm thrust that took both of their breaths away.

Her arm wraps scratched at the back of his neck. His hands cramped with how tightly he was holding onto her rear. Ben already suffered so much to have these moments with her, and when she left him again, he would continue to suffer. At least until he could be the man from her vision—the man with a future at _ her _ side. 

But at this moment, all he could do was release the onslaught of desire, love, and understanding into each of his movements.

Ben was holding her as if she was nothing—as if she weighed nothing, Rey had to correct herself, feeling through the bond exactly how much she meant to him. She wondered if his words on the _ Supremacy _ held the same meaning, but back then, even if it was just purely infatuation, Rey wished she would’ve taken a chance.

She kissed along his neck, behind his ear, pulling his hair to the side so she could get to the place that made his knees weak and his grip firm. Ben was driving his cock up into her like a man possessed—and she mused that perhaps he was.

Her moans were getting louder as the sky turned from orange to pink, and just like the warmth over the land, Rey’s Light and Ben’s redemption also began to rise.

Ben’s movements were becoming more erratic, and his voice was full of restraint and gravel, “I know you are leaving me, and I shouldn’t love you, but fuck—“ he groaned as her insides clamped down around him and her hands forcefully fisted in his hair. “But I do.”

_ Love _… Rey wistfully thought. 

She loves Finn’s smile and Rose’s bluntness. She loves that Poe is a walking disaster, and that Leia was too proud for her own good. She loves Chewie for always knowing exactly what to say when she needs to laugh. She loves the _ Falcon _ for feeling like home when she’s never truly had one. She loves the stowaway porgs from Ahch-To, even when they make nests under the cockpit control panel.

But this love... Ben’s love was different. This love was essential…his love was eternal.

Before Rey could return the words, Ben’s lips were upon hers, and they were crashing into the abyss of pleasure together. Their devotion was pouring out around them, swirling, and then flowing into them again like air into lungs. In their coming together, in the bond, in the Force, with their body, their essence, their feelings—they were now forged into one, never to be broken, never to be undone. 

Wordlessly, Ben pulled out of her, letting Rey’s feet come to rest on the plush carpet, before taking her hand and leading her back to the fresher. They showered, Rey reveling in the multiple streams of water that wrapped her entire body in warmth, or perhaps that was Ben’s strong arms. 

He washed every inch of her skin as if he was trying to memorize her. They were in the water for so long that Rey’s fingers started to prune. But how was he going to watch her go? How was he going to let the other half of his very being walk away?

Neither spoke as they dressed, Rey was content to let Ben’s heated declaration of love hang between them. Fastening the clasp of her cloak, Rey stood a few paces away from Ben, her heart already breaking, and she refused to let him see her cry. So Rey turned and started towards the door. 

But she was frozen within a few steps and spun around not under her own control. Ben stood with his hand outstretched, anger etched on his face. “Ben,” she begged as he paced towards her. “If you keep me against my will, I will never—”

Rey wasn’t able to finish her threat before Ben’s hand was wrapped around her throat, and his lips were crashing against hers. He held her, cradled her jaw, pulled her hips flush against his front, groaned into the kiss and squeezed his eyes shut in the hopes that his tears would be kept at bay. 

With his forehead pressed against hers, Ben’s dark eyes bore into Rey’s gaze, “I will save the galaxy, I will save myself, and then nothing will keep me from you.”

Tilting her head up, Rey kissed him with the fierceness of someone who could only be described as his equal. Breaking from him and stroking her thumb down the scar she cut down the side of his face, Rey brought their lips together one more time, “You will be mine, just as I am yours.”

Ben pulled her in, sealing his promise with a lingering kiss before Rey was pulling out of his arms and racing for the door before she could change her mind. He didn’t follow her, didn’t call out for her, didn’t order his guards to stop her, but Rey also felt like a part of him was with her still, just as she had left a piece behind. 

She was able to make it off-world and into the first hyperspace lane before the tears fell, but it was the comfort of Ben’s Light, his warmth that stroked at her mind that let her know that she wasn’t alone, but for now she could survive without him. 

* * *

Rey cursed when she came upon the base, seeing that the fleet was back from the hoax mission. Not that she would take back the extra time she spent with Ben, but Rey knew that she would need to get the story straight as to why she went off-world. 

The tarmac was still in chaos, so her landing went unnoticed, as did her slinking back into the same dark corridors, but the door to her quarters as ajar, and all the color drained from Rey’s face when she saw Leia with a piece of parchment in her hands.

“I can explain,” Rey blurted out before the General could speak. 

But Leia reminded quiet, narrowing her eyes and appraising the young woman. She reached out with the Force, seeing Rey flinch at the intrusion—but not blocking her out either. It was just a touch, a gentle caress at the young woman’s signature, never thinking of betraying Rey’s trust by taking more than she should. 

Leia found the fire and the Light, but also the desolation and longing of the girl left behind. There was something else though, something knitting back together, healing, bathed in a salve that felt distinctly of herself, and Han...and _ Ben _. 

Schooling her expression, Leia folding the paper in half once, then again before slipping it into a pocket in her coat. “I’m sure you understand that this means you can’t stay here.”

Rey felt as if she just swallowed a crate full of rocks, all of them settling in the pit of her stomach. “I would never compromise…”

“But you have—you did,” Leia said with a sigh. “We wasted fuel, left the base vulnerable. Even if we didn’t run into First Order ships, there are still pirates and gangs out there that would love to cash in on the bounties that are hung over our heads.”

The tears that Rey had been trying to hold in for hours now finally sprung free. How could she feel so complete—but also so broken at the same time? One of the reasons she couldn’t stay with Ben was because Rey refused to pick him over her friends, refused to be their enemy. But now it seemed she didn’t belong with them, either.

Leia walked up and took Rey’s hands in her own, “I don’t want to have to doubt you every time a mission goes bad.” When the young woman ducked her head, Leia tilted it back up with her fingers under Rey’s chin, “I don’t want you to have to bear the blame and betrayal that you would feel if your friends found out about this in the wrong way.”

Rey could only nod as she looked around the simple barracks room that never felt like home, but allowed her to be close to the ones she loves. “Where will I go...what will I do?” She asked with concern written all over her face. 

Placing her hand on Rey’s cheek, Leia smiled. “Anywhere and anything, Rey. You are free,” she said wistfully, as if remembering a time from long before. 

_ Free _...what a foreign concept to someone who was always at the service of others. 

With all of her belongings already packed away, Rey picked up her staff with a sigh, “What will I tell everyone?”

“I could tell them that I am sending you on a mission, one to strengthen your connection and training in the Force.”

Shifting her bag over her shoulder, Rey nodded with a sniffle, “Thank you, Leia...for everything…”

The General was stoic for a long moment, watching the young woman turn from the room, but then her heart clenched, “Rey, wait!” 

Rey stopped and turned back towards Leia, but was surprised when the older woman placed her frail hand over Rey’s heart and saw tears well in her eyes. All of the stiffness in Leia’s body seemed to let go as if she was finally granted relief for a life long suffering. 

“Thank you, Rey,” It has been so long since Leia felt the signature of her son. This wasn’t the clouded Darkness of Kylo Ren, or even the conflicted soul of the young man she sent off to the academy. This was her Ben, her sweet, gentle, caring Ben that now had a permanent home in Rey. “Thank you for saving my son…”

Gripping Leia’s wrist, Rey removed the General’s hand from her chest, “All I did was give him a chance. Ben saved himself.”

She spent the next hour saying goodbye to her friends. Poe gave Rey a pat on the back, telling her that he was going to miss the best mechanic in the Resistance. Rose cried and promised to visit as soon as Rey settled. Finn tried to insist that he was going with her, but relented when Chewie offered to accompany Rey on her journey. 

Leia kept her distance, knowing there was nothing else she could say to the girl that taught her son how to love, the girl that she was now sending away. 

Rey and Chewie bounced around the northern sectors for months before he took her to his homeworld of Kashyyyk. Rey marveled at the towering trees, and spent an entire afternoon with her hand pressed to one, just feeling its energy flow through her. 

One evening, while Rey ate with the Wookiee villagers, she swirled the stew in her bowl, “Chewie, I need to ask you something…”

“Ben is coming,” he assumed as he continued to eat his dinner. Chewie only shifted his gaze to watch the blush touch his young companion’s cheeks. “I will take you to where he will be.”

“How do you…” she started, but stopped when Chewie turned to her and smiled, as much as a Wookiee could smile, that is.

“I would like to believe that as much as my nephew has changed—he is also still very much the boy that I raised.”

Later the next day, Rey and Chewie set off into the forest, heading towards the dipping sun. They seemed to walk for hours, but then in the distance there was a light, high up in the canopy. 

Chewie stopped at the base of the tree, “Do you think you can find your way back?”

Rey nodded and looked up to see a dark figure appear on the rustic balcony. Chewie raised his fur covered hand, calling out _ ‘Starfighter’ _ in acknowledgment, and Ben returned the gesture before the Wookiee retreated into the forest. 

Ben and Rey made love for two days, only taking breaks to eat and meditate, as Ben showed Rey how to connect deeper within the Force. 

“On city worlds, there is a lot of living energy, but it is dark, seeded with the selfish intentions of beings that are more likely to betray than benefit. But here,” he reached out and touched the tree their cabin was built into, “this energy is innocent, pure Light, each tree intertwining their roots, building a community…a family.” He couldn’t help but let his hand wander down Rey’s body as he stood behind her, pausing just for a moment between her hips before continuing on to cup her sex. 

Before the sun rose the next day, Rey and Ben were now thoroughly familiar with each other’s bodies. He knew where to lay feather-light touches to make her giggle or to make her moan. She knew the way his face twisted in almost pain just before he released down the back of her throat. 

Ben walked her back to the Wookiee village, regaling her with stories of his youth along the way and kissing her deeply just inside the tree line before turning and disappearing into the morning mist. 

The next time their paths crossed, it was a more sobering affair. Rey received the holo from Poe and immediately used the comm Ben left with her to relay the news before he heard it from one of his advisors. 

“I’m so sorry, Ben. I was told she passed in her sleep…” Rey flinched as she heard something breaking in the background of the comm. 

The great General Leia Organa was dead. 

Leia’s service was held on New Alderaan, and a parley was called so that mourners from both sides could attend, including the Princess’ wayward son. Ben had long given up his claim to the New Alderaan throne, encouraging the world to embrace democracy, but he was still esteemed as part of the royal family. 

Even with the short-lived truce, the Resistance fighters were on edge as they saw three Star Destroyers enter orbit around the planet. There was a TIE escort, but the black Command Shuttle was replaced with gray Ubrikkian-class Frigate, looking more like a pleasure cruiser than an attack ship. 

The Supreme Leader looked nothing of his old self either, but rather like a Prince of Alderaan. His navy slacks were tucked into smooth black boots, and a blue sash accented his gray coat. A simple band of silver was nestled upon his dark curls, his expression was somber, but the pain could be seen in his eyes. 

He stood with the diplomats of New Alderaan, shaking their hands and accepting their condolences. Rey stayed with her friends, who did not know of her affair. Ben shifted his gaze toward Rey, and their eyes met for just a moment across the room, but Rey did not need to see the dark circles under his eyes, or the red tint of his nose to know his sorrow. His emotions were her own within the bond, and this pain she was willing to bear for him. 

“Look at him standing over there like the grieving son,” Poe scoffed. “Just because the galaxy is brainwashed into agreeing with his rule, doesn’t mean we forgot that he tried to kill his mother once before.”

But Rey knew Ben’s heart. She knew that he wasn’t able to fire on the bridge where his mother stood. She knew that the fighter who let lose those lasers was given swift justice, and sent back to the Force at Ben’s hand.

Leia was laid to rest in the tombs at the palace, which now housed the New Alderaan Senate. She was honored as a Princess, a General, a mother, a mentor. Leia Organa Solo was sent off as the hero of a Rebellion—the inspiration of a generation. 

That night, in a cottage far from the lights of the capital, Rey held Ben in her arms as he wept. 

“She’s gone…” he cried. 

“I know,” Rey answered, stroking his hair, the crown long removed. In the hours before receiving the holo from Poe, she woke with a start, feeling something within the Force, but not truly understanding its meaning. 

“All the things I have done...all of the evil deeds, all the blood.” He looked up from her lap with devastation, “I killed my father!”

Rey’s heart clenched at the thought of Han, but she just stroked her lover’s face in reassurance all the same. “You gave much to the Darkness, and you have fought your way back to the Light. She knew that, Ben.”

“How could she?” He yelled while standing and taking a few steps away from Rey. Then he hung his head, and his shoulders slumped, “How could she know that I’m no longer that monster?”

Crossing the room to him, Rey touched his back, trailing her hand along his side to stand in front of him. Picking up his wrist, she pressed his palm just over her heart, “She felt it, Ben. Here, in me.”

Ben allowed himself to feel the bond between them, acknowledged the pieces of his Light that now lived in Rey, just as her Light resided in him. 

She cupped his cheek and brought his forehead down to just rest upon hers, “She thanked me for saving you…”

He softly hummed out an incredulous chuckle, “You have—body and soul…”

Rey brushed her nose against his, gaining his attention and his gaze, “I told her you saved yourself.”

Ben kissed her then, fiercely and wholly. 

They did not join that night or the next that they remained on New Alderaan, but as they held each other deep into the night, their bond grew and pulsed with their combined Light, and that of the generations who came before them.

Six months and countless meetings later, Rey found herself walking through plumes of sheer curtains that blew in the winds off an impossibility blue lake. The air smelled of cypress and blooms, and as her eyes adjusted to the last afternoon sun, she was met with the widest smile she had seen on Ben’s face since first meeting him in the warm Takodana forest. 

He wore gray, which was his custom now that he had given up on the Darkness, and her dress was a simple cream color with lace sleeves. Ben wore his crown of silver, and Rey, one of white tea roses and sprigs of lavender.

The hills of Naboo’s lake country was their backdrop as Rey stepped forward to bind herself to Ben once again. “My grandparents wed here,” Ben whispered as he took in her beauty. 

“And so shall we,” Rey answered in kind, taking Ben’s hand in hers and nodding to their officiant as Chewie stood in as their second witness. 

Ben laid his wife down on the softest bed in Varykino and worshiped her, steeped in her pleasure, drank in her Light, and gave her all of himself in return. 

They were only able to spend eight days together before Ben had to return to the Core. His new Galactic Senate was gathering, and he knew that with each step towards peace, he was closer to the life that Rey deserved. 

For eight days, they ate ripe fruits and creamy cheeses, bread with crisp crusts, and ones too sweet for Ben’s tongue. They swam in the lake, letting the sun kiss their nude bodies as they kept in constant contact, needing flesh against flesh. They laid out on grassy hills, watching clouds and birds, storms washing down distant valleys, but mostly Ben just watched Rey—memorized each smile, each kiss, each fleck of gold in her hazel eyes. 

On their last night, Ben was on the terrace, sipping a glass of whiskey when Rey exited the home in a silk robe that seemed to be poured over her curves. Without hesitation, she curled up in his lap and kissed his liquor tinged lips. 

“Husband,” she cooed. 

“Wife,” he smiled. 

Within moments, his full glass was forgotten, and Rey was astride him, her robe fell open under his skilled fingertips. Their joining was like coming home, and Rey shifted in his lap under the stars. Their quiet moans were just for them, both grieving their time apart, but also holding on to each kiss and caress to get them through until their next meeting. 

The next year held love and frustration, joy and fear. Some trysts lasted days, while others were frantic hours in the sleeping quarters of the _ Falcon._ He showed her the wonders of the galaxy when time permitted, and showered her with his love when it did not. 

She felt his accomplishment when the Senate started to flourish. He felt her pride in propagating the land and growing her own food. But it was in the night that he felt her pain, her fear, that had Ben racing across the stars to be at her side. 

But it was always back to the Core, perpetually back to fostering peace—but Ben wanted his own solace, and he was ready for a life all his own to begin. 

It was over two years later when this time came. There was no longer a need for the First Order. Many of the loyalists, including Hux, were executed over the years to prevent another uprising. There was no longer a need for Kylo Ren, the dark figure that patrolled the galaxy, policing the gangs and pirates, punishing the slavers and the spice lords. 

The Senate no longer needed Benjamin Skywalker-Organa-Solo, the Bringer of Peace and Keeper of the Light. 

Ben was finally _ free._

Rey had loved Naboo so much that she decided to settle there. Not at the lavish home on the lake, but further up in the hills, building a small cabin with Chewie’s help. She had a small garden and tended to a flock of sheep, selling the wool in the city to be woven into clothes for nobility. 

Pouring a cup a tea, Rey smiled while looking at her flower crown, now dried and preserved as it hung on the wall in the living area of the home. 

She felt him before she heard the ship, her chest became so full that for a moment, she found it hard to breathe. Taking her cup, she wandered over to the already open door, since she enjoyed having the fresh spring air flowing through the house. 

A singular TIE was perched on a far hill, and her handsome husband strode across the small valley towards their home, his gray cloak blowing in the wind. Chewie ceased chopping wood at the side of the house, and Rey hid her knowing smile behind the ceramic cup. 

Ben’s full strides soon turned into an awkward trot as he raced across the grass. His arms were stretched wide, bracing for impact.

“Da!” The little girl with dark hair and gold flecks in her eyes called out as she was swept up into her father’s arms. 

“Thea Rose,” Ben hugged his daughter to his chest and spun her around while listening to her infectious giggles. 

After placing a few happy kisses to Thea’s cheeks, Ben held her close and walked the rest of the way to the house, all the while the curious three-year-old poked at his spots—or beauty marks—as Rey came to call them. 

“You didn’t tell me you were coming,” Rey said as her husband approached. 

Ben now kissed his wife, but in a much more lewd manner. “I wanted to surprise you.”

Rey hummed against her husband’s lips, “You always astounded me...”

They were only separated when Thea started to unceremoniously blow raspberries against her father’s cheek, causing both Rey and Ben to laugh at their daughter’s antics. 

Having cupped his wife’s cheek when he was within reach of her, Ben now ran his hand down her body, resting it on her rounding stomach, “How is our boy today?”

Rey placed her hands over his, pressing firmly, knowing that Ben could easily feel their son through the Force, but the baby had started moving more just the other day. “Causing much indigestion...but I wouldn’t expect less from a Solo man.”

Ben scrunched his face playfully before quickly kissing her. 

“How long are you here this time?” Rey asked as Thea wiggled out of Ben’s arms and went to use Chewie as a climbing post. 

Threading his arm around Rey’s shoulders, Ben looked out over the little world that they made together. He watched the heather sway in the wind, could smell freshly turned soil and smoke that curled from the chimney. He observed a full-grown Wookiee tumble to the ground dramatically under the attack of a toddler, and he looked down at the vibrant, strong, and breathtakingly beautiful woman who gave him all of it. 

“Fifty to sixty years...depending on how long my wife can bear to be around me…” he teased. 

Rey looked up at him with confused excitement, never thinking...never believing that this day would come. “You are home...for good?”

“I’m home, sweetheart,” he cups her jaw once more, pressing a long kiss to her lips. “Forever…” 

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Meaning behind Rey and Ben’s daughter’s name: Thea is the Greek goddess of light, mother of the sun, moon, and dawn. Rose...because...you know. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone who read this little story. I couldn’t think of a better person to gift it to. 
> 
> This story idea, title, and chapter titles are based off/from the song Atmosphere, performed by Bebe Rexha.


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